Arriva Trains Wales are advertising for Trainee Drivers Pwllehli & Machynlleth. Hope that's of use to someone out there. Would love to apply but too far for me. Although beautiful part of the country to be driving trains. Good luck to anyone who applies.
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ATW Trainee Drivers Pwllehli & Machynlleth
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Beveridges
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I applied for these back in 2009. Got put on hold for about 2 years with promise of a start date that never came. Not interested in them now obviously.
The scenery may be lush but the work is limited. Salop to Aberystwyth & Pwhelli and nowt else <sp> shame HHD & CTR are internal only
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BravoGolfMike
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Has the ERTMS system settled down? Seemed to have some serious teething problems, including huge delays, increase in SPADs and was a contributory factor in the Llandabarn level crossing incident. Does anyone on here use it? Obviously I ask because these two depots are where our pioneering ERTMS drivers are based.
Sammy h
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Applied for Machynlleth vacancy.
Got invited to recruitment day for Holyhead last year with Arriva, passed all the tests, but was not chosen. Hopefully can go one step further this time.
Got invited to recruitment day for Holyhead last year with Arriva, passed all the tests, but was not chosen. Hopefully can go one step further this time.
It depends. When it works, it seems to work relatively well, but when something goes wrong with it, the whole Cambrian network suffers. Rather incredibly, it has multiple points of failure that bring down the entire ERTMS system. In this wet weather, there have been multiple axle counter failures, and many of the GSM-R towers have also lost power. The end result was that nothing could move - trains cancelled left, right, and centre. It also appears that it takes just one GSM-R tower on the Cambrian to go offline (for whatever reason), and it makes ERTMS inoperable. Rather incredible, isn't it?
BravoGolfMike
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Interesting that, thanks. I was reading the new edition of the RSSB mag the other day which had a two page spread in it about the trial. Basically seemed to say that everything was fine and dandy, no mention of the troubles with the new system. Perhaps unsurprising, but I would have liked a more honest appraisal from the industry safety gurus.
Maybe it is time to reward the hard working staff by offering them the chance for a drivers position? If it is mainly ex guards that apply and are successful there will obviously be guards vacancies at CTR & HHD this will most likely be an open recruitment process.
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ERTMS is still dead today. NR hope to have it working by tomorrow, in order that ATW can run trains.
It's a shame really because I remember the Machy drivers going to BNS and Chester. I think that possibly someone, somewhere decided that the risk was high at the time going from one signalling system to another as Crewe drivers used to sign to Mach but no longer do.
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There were LC infringements and SPADS on the Cambrian before ERTMS was installed. With less signalling and a more robust system I would say that when ERTMS is in full operation SPADS will decrease considerably.
BravoGolfMike
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Obviously there were incidents before ERTMS, but the fact is that reliability went down and SPADs went up. I have not heard much else since, hence the framing of my question: Has it settled down? It would appear from some of the responses that the answer is not just yet.
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ultra4
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It is going to be a one very long recruitment, judging by the closing date 
Well that is the problem when NR decide to test an all singing all dancing new signalling system on the largest siding in Wales. Low risk as it is the Cambrian and certainly a good test for when it is eventually rolled out in this country. I honestly think it is a complete waste of time unless installed on new HS lines as unfortunately the UK just is too small and too crowded railway wise for us to really benefit from it's advanced features. Sorry to drift off topic btw.
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It is going to be a one very long recruitment, judging by the closing date
Indeed I really think that is a typo error
broomster
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It is going to be a one very long recruitment, judging by the closing date
At the bottom of the advert, it states :-
"NB: Please disregard the closing date for this postion, it will remain open until we have a sufficient number of applications. However, to avoid disappointment, we recomend you apply as soon as possible."
If this was a test as part of the observation skills of a trainee driver, you'd have failed
lolDoes anybody else have difficulty with the Personal Statement section on ATW's application? I get quite far with other TOCs in the recruitment process but for some reason I have a major headache with this one. I obviously need more structure. English has never been my strongest point.
Here goes nothing...
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I know what you mean. Its easier for some jobs where they give a 5-page person specification to tailor your personal statement to that. But I guess you just have to sell yourself, and hope it all works out. That's what I'm doing!
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I know what you mean. Its easier for some jobs where they give a 5-page person specification to tailor your personal statement to that. But I guess you just have to sell yourself, and hope it all works out. That's what I'm doing!
tiptoptaff
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Indeed I really think that is a typo error
It's not an error - the job description clearly says to ignore it, as they're keeping it open for as long as it takes to get "sufficient" applications
ultra4
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It's not an error - the job description clearly says to ignore it, as they're keeping it open for as long as it takes to get "sufficient" applications
Yes, we know. It meant to be a joke.
Does anybody else have difficulty with the Personal Statement section on ATW's application? I get quite far with other TOCs in the recruitment process but for some reason I have a major headache with this one. I obviously need more structure. English has never been my strongest point.[/QUOTE]
For Mach and Pwllheli you might want to polish up your Welsh as well...
Does anybody else have difficulty with the Personal Statement section on ATW's application? I get quite far with other TOCs in the recruitment process but for some reason I have a major headache with this one. I obviously need more structure. English has never been my strongest point.[/QUOTE]
For Mach and Pwllheli you might want to polish up your Welsh as well...
Really??? I can say the station names......... ish. I would have to ask my 8 year old nephew to help me, he's fluent as he lives in Holyhead.... All I know is ARAF and sauce cork!!! ( slow & red sauce) haha
Jones
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It's Sos Coch = Red
HA!! I stand corrected!! Well I know ARAF!!!
SWTH
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Pronounced 'arav'
I find one of the most irritating parts of applying with ATW is how their site auto-formats the personal statement into one big block of text after it is submitted. Makes it look an absolute mess and I wonder if it makes HR miss some of the details due to 'glazing over' whilst trying to read them.
Pronounced 'arav'
I find one of the most irritating parts of applying with ATW is how their site auto-formats the personal statement into one big block of text after it is submitted. Makes it look an absolute mess and I wonder if it makes HR miss some of the details due to 'glazing over' whilst trying to read them.
I was thinking that yesterday after I took care to paragraph everything all nice and neat, then after I submitted it, it was a horrible block of words!
It made me think if they do it this way so a computer programme of some sort can scan the document to pick out the "key words". To save time in the early stages of the recruitment process. Then after they have been sifted, an actual human gets a read of them.
Just a thought, I know some companies have these programmes.
SWTH
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Possibly, though I wouldn't have thought paragraphs would present much of an issue.
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